Is physical therapy good for cervical spondylosis?

For a common disease like cervical spondylosis, we usually treat it through physical therapy in our daily life, such as correcting the cervical spine through health exercises, or relieving acupoints to achieve the effect of alleviating cervical spondylosis. Physical therapy for patients with cervical spondylosis can alleviate the complications caused by cervical spondylosis and relieve nervous tension, so you can also perform appropriate cervical massage and cervical care in your daily life.

Physiotherapy refers to the use of artificial or natural physical factors to act on the human body to cause it to produce beneficial reactions, thereby achieving the purpose of preventing and treating diseases. The key is to improve blood circulation, accelerate metabolism, promote the repair of lesions, reduce inflammation and relieve pain, relieve symptoms of nerve compression and irritation, and relieve spasms of the muscles around the cervical spine.

At this point, everyone knows that physical therapy is mainly used to relieve the early symptoms of cervical spondylosis, especially the symptoms of the neck and shoulders, but the effect is not so certain for the symptoms of nerve and spinal cord compression.

1. Cervical spondylosis treatment can relieve inflammation in the neck and shoulders

Both physical therapy and heat therapy can increase blood circulation in the treated part of the body and reduce edema, that is, relieve local inflammation and reduce the patient's pain. If the patient's spinal nerves are stimulated, there will be some edema around them, and physical therapy can also slightly reduce edema.

If the patient has sympathetic nerve stimulation and autonomic dysfunction, physical therapy can also regulate the autonomic dysfunction and alleviate the patient's symptoms.

2. Five commonly used physical therapy methods for cervical spondylosis:

(1) Iontophoresis therapy. It is a physical therapy that uses the effect of direct current electric field and the property that like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract each other to apply various Chinese and Western medicines to the neck. This therapy is beneficial to the absorption of drugs and improves their efficacy.

(2) Traditional Chinese medicine electric ironing therapy. It is a method that superimposes direct current or low-frequency pulse current on the basis of hot compress with traditional Chinese medicine which is mainly used to dispel wind and cold, promote blood circulation and unblock menstruation. It combines the therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicine fumigation, thermotherapy and low-frequency electrotherapy, so it has better therapeutic effects of relieving pain, reducing inflammation, and improving nerve, joint and muscle functions.

(3) Induction electrotherapy. By acting on the neck and back muscles in a pulse manner or with the help of ion introduction and other methods, the muscle tension can be increased and muscle strength can be strengthened, which can help patients with weakened neck and back muscles caused by long-term and repeated attacks to recover. The most common clinical device is the cervical vertebra therapy device.

(4) High-frequency electrotherapy. Currently commonly used methods include ultrashort wave, short wave, microwave, etc. Deep electrothermal therapy is used to improve blood supply to deep tissues to facilitate tissue repair.

(5) Ultrasound therapy. On the basis of thermotherapy, the ultrasonic probe is applied to the back and sides of the neck using the contact movement method. It is especially effective for cervical spondylosis.

3. Can I buy a physical therapy device for home use?

If you want to do physical therapy for cervical spondylosis in the early stages, it is best to go to the hospital to consult an expert for advice. You can also consult your doctor about what kind of physical therapy device to buy instead of blindly treating it. If the treatment method is not suitable for you, it will have the opposite effect.

Today's physical therapy devices include multi-function and single-function ones (such as relying solely on electric heat therapy or magnetic therapy). Doctors in the physical therapy department recommend that you try not to buy a multi-function physical therapy device. A single heating lamp will do the trick. If there are too many functions and you can’t use them all, it’s better to just use a single one.

On the other hand, the prices of the two types of therapy devices vary greatly. A single heating lamp may only cost one or two hundred yuan, while a multi-functional therapy device may cost tens of thousands of yuan.

4. Don’t do massage blindly

Many patients feel very comfortable after massage, so they want to choose Chinese medicine massage. However, it is not recommended for all patients with cervical spondylosis to undergo massage, because massage may aggravate neurological symptoms (such as pain, numbness, etc.) in patients with severe radiculopathy.

Regular Chinese medicine hospitals will ask patients to undergo MRI and other examinations first to determine the severity of the patient's condition. If the cervical spondylosis is very mild, with only discomfort in the neck and shoulders and no nerve compression, you can have massage. However, if the condition is already serious, massage may make it worse.